Fulfill Your Hiking Dream! Here to help fellow hikers by offering wisdom, ideas, and lessons learned from a two-time AT North and South, Long Trail, Foothills Trail, Allegheny Trail, Colorado Trail, Florida Trail, Shenandoah Nat'l Park 500 miler completions. Former AT Ridgerunner for six years, Author, Speaker on Hiking and Backpacking

Saturday, September 05, 2015

The Meaning of Life and a Trail - A Walk in the Woods Review

A Walk in
the Woods will certainly generate AT interest. But not in the way some might
think.

This movie is essentially
about two older people looking for the meaning of the rest of their life by
taking a walk on the Appalachian Trail. One battles alcohol. The other is a washed-up
author who is seeing friends die. It is a scenario those over 50 see very much in
their lives. Which is why I believe the film will MEAN more to the older generation.
Young folks will likely find it boring, uninteresting, or upset the way young people
are portrayed in it as either hip studs ready to rescue the old codgers or
obnoxious and mean. This is not a movie for young people in that sense. The
movie examines the thoughts of older people. But in this, young might learn something
valuable about life as they see parents and grandparents go through these struggles.
Which is a good thing as these days people seem to be very “me centered.”

As for the hiker, ones
that have done the AT won’t like a few mishaps with the trail or mistaken scenery
placement. But this is not a documentary. Tons of those out there. It shows a
few of life’s lessons and also lessons you can learn on the trail. Like what happens
when one doesn’t follow Leave No Trace with food and the bears come (although grizzlies
are NOT on the AT). I was also happy to see that twice the hikers showed ethics
with waste disposal. There was a small 5 second clip of maintainers taking care
of the trail. It did show some beautiful spots and how the trail can invigorate
you and cause life changes. That will be its draw, as well as the draw of
simply seeing a Hollywood flick with AT written all over it that then extends
to people buying the book. Which led to the initial surge of hikers after the
book’s release.

I am still concerned about
the impact of the trail by those that don’t know what to do. And I feel the
movie could certainly spur others to try and do it without being adequately prepared.
It did not show so much the rigors but in many cases, interesting trail life. That
the trail has lots of pit stops and comraderie and social aspects. That will
draw folks. But preparation is the key. As well as preservation in observing Leave
No Trace.

But do find a mean to
life by a hike, whether in yourself are in others. A walk fills the soul in ways
this modern world can never do.